San Jose Auto Repair

Driver-less Cars? They are here…

Posted on 6/2/2016

You may not know that California, Michigan, Florida and Nevada have all passed laws allowing driverless cars to operate on public highways and roads. So far, it’s mostly Google’s cars – and they do have drivers – it’s just that the drivers do not do anything – the car drives itself.

Google currently has about 20 cars. Lexus RX450h hybrid SUV vehicles, that have self-driving technology built in. They are driving all over the Bay Area. Google says they are driving about 10,000 miles per month, and by June 2015 Google claimed to have logged more than a million miles. You may have read that one of those cars became the first driverless car stopped by police – for driving too slowly!

Having done a lot of testing, Google is trying to get into car manufacturing. Until recently Google was modifying cars made by Volkswagen and Toyota. But now they are talking about developing their own vehicle.

Google has partnered up with Roush Enterprises – the company created by Jack Roush who got his automotive experience at Ford Motor Company. The car will be made in Michigan and has no name as of yet. As for the road tests – well, in Mountain View of course – right where Google is located.